1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a power source control device of an illuminator and a power source control device for controlling the lighting, the extinction, and the dimming of a light emitting diode (LED) lighting, and more particularly to a power source control device performing a dimming control of LED lighting by the use of a remote control device and a lighting system using the power source control device.
2. Description of Related Art
In recent years, LED lighting consuming little electric power has become widely used in place of incandescent lamps consuming much electric power in order to decrease the amount of the emission of carbon dioxide. A technique for controlling the dimming of such an LED illuminating device on the basis of a first dimming signal composed of a pulse signal the duty or the frequency of which can be changed and a second dimming signal composed of a pulse signal the voltage amplitude of which can be changed was proposed (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2009-301876).
The dimming control technique described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2009-301876 has a problem in which changes after laying are troublesome because the technique adopts a wired system. To put it concretely, when a plurality of illuminators is laid on a ceiling of a comparatively wide building, the illuminators are sometimes attached to the ceiling at predetermined intervals. When a lighting system for controlling the dimming of the plurality of illuminators is built, a plurality of power switches SW1, SW2, . . . and dimming dials DL1, DL2, are generally provided as shown in FIG. 13. Although FIG. 13 shows that one illuminator LED is connected to a set of a switch and a dimming dial, a plurality of illuminators is actually connected to a set of a switch and a dimming dial.
There is, however, the case of changing (increasing or decreasing) the number of previously installed illuminators LED as shown in FIG. 12A or the case of extension or the case of changing the combination of illuminators LED controlled by power switches SW and dimming dials DL as shown in FIG. 12B with the reconstruction of the building, a change of interior finishing, and the like. However, the larger the number of illuminators laid in a building, which is large, is, the more the number of wires becomes. Consequently, a lighting system to which the conventional technique is applied has a problem in which the construction of increasing wires and switches, increasing and changing switching relays, and the like becomes complicated and massive.
In addition, there are some difficult cases of construction such as the increasing, the changing, and the like of illuminators in the cases of facilities having high ceilings, such as warehouses and exhibit halls, facilities having inferior construction environments, such as refrigerating rooms, buildings having narrow spaces for wiring owing to their structures, and the like. The illuminators LED in FIGS. 12A and 12B are those in each of which a lamp and a power source unit (including a driver) are integrated.